We got a call early this morning with someone telling us that Kirk Kerkorian and Tracinda had just moved to buy more of FoMoCo. Having endured a late night, we promptly fell back asleep. Upon waking up we had to run to the computer to double check that wasn't some sort of weird dream (like the one where Bob Lutz hunts us with a crossbow). Turns out it wasn't. When it is all over, Tracinda will own 120 million shares of Ford common stock. KirkKerk is putting up a price of $8.50, or 13.3% over Friday's closing price of $7.50. As we've mentioned, Tracinda has sort of a weird history with US automakers.
At one time Tracinda owned a big chunk of GM but sold it after the company rejected his bid to combine GM-Renualt-Nissan. Then Tracinda offered $4.5 billion for Chrysler. All of this automotive refrigerator raiding comes after his firs foray into the Pentastar-ed brand back in the 90's. That move forced Chrysler into the waiting arms of Daimler-Benz, where it was snuggled at arms length until finally being jettisoned into the unknowing grasp of Cerberus. This all goes to show that when Kirk starts buying up shares of American automakers he likes to make a bundle of money have a say, but what is he saying about Ford? Is this a wise investment? Is Ford the automaker of last resort? Is he mad? Is he a genius? Is he both?